Appreciates Support

Dear Editor,

Ten years ago a good friend of mine gave me an idea. She suggested I start an Easter egg hunt for the children in Patricksburg. At first, I thought this was one of the craziest ideas I had ever heard, but then again maybe not. She suggested I call local businesses and tell them what I was doing to ask for their donations and sponsorship. After all the most they could do was tell me no, right? So I did. The first year we held the egg hunt on our own property and had 43 kids, over 1,100 eggs and enough prizes that each of them got something. The next year, with the support of Patricksburg Elementary, we moved the egg hunt to the playground at the school. We doubled our numbers in kids, eggs and prizes! We continued to grow each year.

By the fifth year I had been voted on as a member of the Board of Directors for the Patricksburg Community Center, and we voted to include the Patricksburg Easter Egg Hunt as a community center ‘event’ with the agreement that when I was no longer a member of the board the egg hunt was no longer a community center event. Basically saying, it came with me, it leaves with me. We continued to grow each year. Last year was our ninth year. We had over 300 children, almost 10,000 eggs, and over 250 prizes! This year would have been our 10- year anniversary and was planned to be our biggest and best ever!

Last fall, a new Board of Directors took over at the Patricksburg Community Center. We were in agreement then that the Patricksburg Easter Egg Hunt would no longer be a community center event, that it would go back to being privately operated without the backing of a non-profit organization.

It has now come to my attention that the Patricksburg Community Center has already secured the Patricksburg Elementary School for their own Patricksburg Easter Egg Hunt and the school cannot allow us to have an egg hunt without us being backed by a non-profit organization.

This being said, I will no longer be doing the Patricksburg Easter Egg Hunt.

I am very happy to have been able to do what I could for all these kids for the last nine years and hope the Egg Hunt continues for many years. I appreciate all of the sponsors for your support over the years and all of the individual people who have helped in so many ways!